Monday, November 5, 2012

Talkdemonic, Mwahaha and Le Fleur @ the VaC (11/2/12)

I'd greatly enjoyed Talkdemonic's performance on the Treefort main stage, so I got excited when I saw that they'd be coming back to Boise. This show attracted me too because it featured Mwahaha, a group from Oakland, CA whose Treefort set I'd missed.

I got a little worried when I arrived at the VaC and saw only twenty people there. Thankfully, that number would triple as the night progressed. And that meant not only plenty of ears to hear the music but plenty of eyes to see the montages crafted by the dudes at antimagic.

Local band Le Fleur opened the show. I was going to write that this might've been the best performance that I've seen by them yet, but I actually wrote that in my last post on them. In any case, their solemn vocals, droning guitars, spare basslines, quietly intricate drumwork and hissing, blaring synthesizer all sounded in outstanding form. Their strengthened groove gave the music extra power. So did antimagic's montages, whose abstract images underlined the music's ominousness and whose cheery clips from 50's and 60's films provided an ironic counterpoint to it.

Next up was Mwahaha. Their low, submerged vocals, chiming guitar, tribal beats and squeaking, burbling, whirring synth made me think a little of the Sisters of Mercy gone trip-hop. The pulsating lights, swirling and sparkling squares and distorted cityscapes that antimagic had crafted for this set made me think a little of the star gate sequence in 2001 (i.e. the part leading up to Dave Bowman finding himself in the weird-ass bedroom). The two elements combined to create an otherworldly atmosphere in which the audience could lose themselves. Fascinating stuff.

Talkdemonic closed out the night. I likened this Portland group to Gary Numan in my Treefort Day 2 post. Hearing them live again, however, they made me think more of Vangelis but with much sharper beats. Whatever the appropriate comparison, their droning, screeching, rippling violin and synth hooks, their man-meets-machine drumming and their simple, memorable tunes sounded just as wondrous the second time around. Probably more so, in fact, thanks to their smoke-and-laser show and the snowflakes, cascading water, flashing squares and zigzagging blobs of light of antimagic's montages. I wonder if Ridley Scott's looking for people to do the score for the Blade Runner sequel.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online. Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Duck Club Presents.